On October 7, just past noon, four activists chained themselves to the front entrance of the Citi branch in Harvard Square, Cambridge. The action started as a protest in front of the Bank of America branch a block away before marching down the street to Citibank, where the four activists had already chained themselves to the front door, closing the bank for a period of time. Over 150 people attended the protest, while many more onlookers gathered in Harvard Square.

The action, using the tag-line “Not With Our Money” was intended to raise awareness of the connections between the current financial crisis and the impending climate crisis. Both Bank of America and Citi Bank are responsible for funding dirty coal power that harms the environment, and engaging in predatory lending practices that are fueling the foreclosure crisis and have left families in Boston homeless.

Several groups were involved with the protest including Rising Tide Boston and Rainforest Action Network, both environmental justice groups, and City Life/Vida Urbana, a tenants’ rights organization.

“Bank of America’s irresponsible lending practices have resulted in a wave of evictions in Boston that are devastating our neighborhoods, especially communities of color,” said Soleded Lawrence, an organizer with City Life/Vida Urbana. Last month, City Life organized several successful eviction blockades to prevent banks from evicting homeowners who had fallen behind on their mortgage payments.

A rally originally started around noon in front of the Bank of America, and after a brief march led the protesters to Citibank, where the activists had locked down.

On Saturday, September 20th, 40 people gathered at Northeastern University in Boston, MA to kick off the new year of Massachusetts Power Shift, a youth-organized statewide network of student, youth and community environmental activists. 13 schools and 10 community organizations were represented at the meeting, bringing MAPS representation from every region of the state. At this meeting, members were introduced to the campaigns we are working on this year: Power Vote and the We Campaign, following Al Gore's call for 100% renewable energy by 2018.

During the meeting, MAPS members came up with a list of problems facing youth environmentalists today, and it includes dependency on foreign fossil fuels, continuance of business as usual, unemployment, home foreclosures and worsening imbalance of wealth, the economy and environment seen as separate issues, inactivity and passivity of our current elected officials, youth not knowing where to plug in, disconnect between communities and student groups, higher cost of green solutions, exploitative relationships to nature and people, addiction to the growth market, capitalism, consumerism and a disconnect between direct action and political organizations.

We came up with a list of actions to take! We've decided it is due time to hold politicians accountable, build massive outreach, build this incredible national movement even stronger, guiding people to make day to day changes to lessen their carbon footprint, Power Vote, expose dirty money in politics, empower people, create the story of a sustainable and just lifestyle, following up with the Power Vote volunteers, utilizing all of the tactics and tools in our boxes in strategic ways and not stopping after the elections!

The climate crisis is upon us. However, as the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, has declared, "climate change affects us all, but it doesn't affect us all equally.(1)" It is with this understanding that hundreds of concerned community members met at the the Northeast Climate Confluence, in High Falls, New York.

Beginning July 30th, communities, groups, and individuals from across the northeast gathered at the Epworth Camp and Retreat Center to share ideas and skills, strengthen relationships, and strategized for action. The topics addressed ranged from immigration raids and oppression to health care and disaster relief. The Climate Confluence was four days of workshops and strategy sessions, addressing, as the organizers put it, "the root causes of climate change."

"The same system that wages a daily war on our communities is poised to destroy our very life blood: the earth, the water, our food, and our culture," says Sundeep Sood, Confluence organizer. "By combining our knowledge and energy we will create real solutions and decrease our dependence on the institutions that are attacking the planet and all life."

The Climate Confluence was planned in conjunction with six other convergences taking place throughout July and August in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Germany. In the US the events were held in New York, Oregon, and Virginia between July 28th and August 11th.